Conor McGregor v Nate Diaz: Everything points to a Notorious win

Fresh from beating Jose Aldo at UFC 194, Conor McGregor will step back into the Octagon on March 6 to take on Nate Diaz.

Notorious was due to face Lightweight champion Rafael dos Anjos in a bid to become the UFC’s first dual-weight champion but after breaking his foot, Dos Anjos pulled out of the fight.

Not being one to walk away from an opportunity McGregor has now stepped up to Welterweight to face Diaz and the betting suggests an easy night’s work for Dublin man.

McGregor is 2/9 to win the fight, with Diaz available at 10/3 and odds of just 9/2 say McGregor can take his man out inside 60 seconds.

But what does everyone else think?

Well according to MMA stats site Cage Rank, there could be some value in backing Diaz.

After crunching the numbers the website rated the Californian’s chances of winning the fight at 53 per cent, saying the 30-year-old is superior in securing submissions, delivering meaningful attacks and avoiding submissions.

The article also claims that Diaz has a better defence against being finished quickly and is better at dodging and blocking powerful blows as well as being taller, heavier and boasting a longer reach.

Of course McGregor was found to have some advantages – namely a better knockout rate, taking people to ground and being younger – but all told the website says a Diaz win is most likely.

However, Cage Rank are pretty much alone in their thinking and a poll by MMA Junkie highlighted this 64.13 per cent of their voters saying that McGregor will come out on top.

One things is for a sure and that’s that if the promo video is anything to go by we’re in for one hell of a fight – one that Ian Wright is certainly looking forward to…

Can’t wait for this @btsport ?https://t.co/0CudTNp8F4.

— Ian Wright (@IanWright0) March 1, 2016

Polls, stats and excited ex-pros are unlikely to convince anyone who is unsure how this fight will pan out however, so we’ll leave you with a number of predictions from those brave enough to step into the octagon including England’s Michael Bisping fresh from his own success against Anderson Silva…

All odds and markets correct as of the date of publishing.